It wasn’t the easiest sweep Amarillo High has had, but the No. 7 Lady Sandies were able to get the victory.

In a battle of the top two teams in District 3-4A, it came down to one or two momentum-shifting points a set as Amarillo High topped No. 12 Randall, 25-20, 27-25, 25-23, on Tuesday night at Randall.

“The girls were serving to the right places,” Amarillo High coach Jan Barker said. “That was big because we were able to keep them from running some of the things they were wanting to run on serve-receive. I thought that was important. We were really consistent on the night. We didn’t have a whole lot of hitting errors.”

The match featured 25 ties and five lead changes, including 15 ties and five lead changes in the second set. In the second and third sets, Amarillo High trailed by at least four points and as many as six.

“Even when we got down we never stopped fighting,” Barker said. “The girls believe in themselves. Even when things aren’t going so well, they are starting to really believe in their teammates, too. At the very beginning of the season you’d see us do that and the girls would lose their fight. Now they’re fighting.”

Randall coach Jason Culpepper said his team just couldn’t get the big hit.

“I thought we played well at times and at times we just relaxed a bit too much and look a little off,” Culpepper said. “I’m proud of the way we came out and battled. We just didn’t get the one pass or the one hit we needed. We will have to look at it and make a few adjustment.”

One key difference in the match was the middle blocker play by the Lady Sandies. Juniors Ashley Owens (6-2) and Rylea Kilburn (6-3)each had big moments in the match. Owens racked up a team high six blocks and had eight kills. Kilburn had the final two kills of the match.

“Both of them are tall and they have a huge reach,” Barker said. “They are tough to get around. We depend on them to be blocking. We are starting to set them more and more. We haven’t been setting them enough. We are trying to get them more involved.”

The Lady Raiders even changed their offensive approach to more tips and dumps to avoid blocking by Amarillo High.

“I felt like our team had a lot of communication going on tonight,” Owens said. “We really trust each other. We came out with a lot of confidence. It felt great. We were determined to win. We would not let them get revenge on us.”

The middles were able to change momentum several times in the match, getting a quick set from senior setter Callie Hill and drilling it to the floor.

“I love it,” said Owens, who has verbally committed to UNLV. “I love having us being set. It really helps our offense and it gets us excited when we put it down. The sound just gets us and the whole crowd goes wild. It gets us so pumped up.”

Barker said the Lady Sandies have to avoid a letdown when they face No. 18 Canyon on Saturday.

“Last time we played them, we swept them in three and the girls felt good about it,” Barker said. “Then the next match against Canyon we didn’t play so well. It’ll be a test to see what we do after this. We will see if we step it up a notch or be complacent.”